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All 02.0 - A Constructive Evening
The morning of Elul 17th saw Caitlyn awake to a knock on her front door. As she went to answer it, she found a somewhat passive-aggressive note on her bedroom door from one of her roommates, and the strange man from the previous night sleeping soundly and shirtless on her couch. At the door, she saw whom she expected: Robert, the CSIS courier. He tried to engage her in awkward conversation, though she made it rather apparent that she didn't want to chat. He gave her the payment from last night's mission, and told her that Ms. Willowick and the police both wanted to see her today before biking off. Caitlyn returned inside for breakfast; after an hour or so, she woke up her houseguest. Offering breakfast and some of her housemate's clothes, which she assumed wouldn't be missed, the two shared a morning rife with protracted silence and awkward conversation. The man, reluctantly answering to Jimmy, continued to assert that he had amnesia, inferred that he still believed his own implausible story regarding his origins, and stated that he would attempt to get hired at CSIS alongside her and her partner, whom he felt obligated to serve in some fashion. Caitlyn, for her part, made it clear that she would appreciate the man staying somewhere else this evening. Lucca, after sleeping in and finding his cheque and meeting notices hidden in the tree he had designated as his official mailbox, wandered over to the CSIS office by noon, around the same time as Caitlyn and Jimmy. The pair reached the offices first; Ms. Willowick greeted Caitlyn and asked about her welfare before turning to the man she recognized as having wandered in with the young woman the night before. He offered to work for the agency, to which Ms. Willowick was slightly skeptical, considering his own admission of having no known skills. She agreed to let him work on a probationary contract, with Caitlyn's referral. What followed was an awkward exchange regarding his name, which he seemed very reluctant to decide on his own; she allowed him to sign the name with blood droplets, since that was considered legally binding in court. It was at this point Lucca entered, was brought up to speed, and the newly-formed trio was given their assignment. According to the documentation, the High Council of Arcana had heard of a mysterious new sort of enchanted armour and wished for more details regarding it. They supplied some scrolls and equipment necessary to garner data regarding its abilities and nature, and requested that agents be sent to Rochester in order to find it. According to their sources, it was in the possession of Aaron Armond, owner of the Boutique of Armor, Armoires and Accessories. Ms. Willowick apologized for sending them out so soon after their last harrowing mission, but they were very short staffed, and had no one else to send to the distant forestry town. They were told to take Lightning Transit, and to make sure to report to the police before they went. Lucca and Caitlyn, after sitting down at a park bench, straightened out the details of the story they were going to report to the police. Jimmy restated his preference to leave his existence unknown; the other two agreed to this, and gave him some money to buy clothes while they were gone. They went to the police, where they were seperately interrogated as to what they saw and did the previous day. They recounted the scenario completely, though left some particular details omitted: they mentioned nothing of the scrolls or strange notes they found in the study, claimed that the second basement room was empty when they found it, and otherwise said nothing of the man they discovered or the objects that some might imply that they stole. The officer, for his part, did not pick up on the omissions; he asked if they might know anything further, as the investigators now knew that this case was linked to a currently unverifiable number of murders and disappearances, but they both declined further comment. They were paid handsomely for stopping a murderer, and sent about their way. Returning to the bench, they waited until their new teammate returned, now dressed in rather fine clothes and sporting a rapier. He returned the borrowed clothes to Caitlyn, and complained about the quality and style of swords for sale in this town. With nothing further to discuss, they went to the local LT station, and waited for a departure to Rochester. Upon reaching the town in the late afternoon, they went to the business in question. They found it to be a rather nice two-story building, separated from its neighbours by a 7ft privacy wall and surrounded by elaborate gardens and topiaries. They walked up the path to the door, while Lucca grumbled about the "Keep off the Lawn" sign. Inside was a storefront: stately yet minimalist decor and a small number of display items allowed for each of the fine works of art to be appreciated fully. Along one side were displays of some of the most beautiful armours from both Asanon and Yeto, while along the other were gorgeous examples of desk and drawer furniture. The three stood at the entry while the owner, a short, middle-aged, overweight man looked them over. Quickly deeming them to not have the money to shop there, he asked what their business was. The two younger members looked to their elder who, after pausing a few moments to cognize that he was apparently in charge of representing them now, explained that they were there from CSIS to investigate a request from the High Council of Arcana regarding a particular suit of enchanted armour. The man became pale and flustered at this, though he denied any knowledge of the item. Jimmy threatened further legal action, and the man called the bluff, evicting them from the premises. Standing on the front path, they watched the man flip his store sign to "Closed"; they quickly agreed to come back in the night and break in the rear, after dinner. The three went to a nearby restaurant for the remainder of the evening, mostly thanks to the painfully slow rate at which Jimmy ate, allowing Lucca to order four times in the span of his single meal. The conversation was again sparse and the silence awkward. There was further discussion as to the man's name; he blatently refused to state a positive opinion on it himself, though he obviously did not want to be referred to as Jimmy. He showed no interest in several other names suggested by Lucca, though in his defense, none of them were particularly good names, including Fritz, Boris, Jean-Francois and, at one point, Fido. Caitlyn, though obviously deriving amusement from the whole thing, pointedly offered no advice for fear of taking any sort of responsibility. Under the cover of darkness, the three returned to the store, going around the back. Scaling the wall with the help of Caitlyn's grappling hook, they saw the back door, on the opposite side of the manicured lawn. Between them and the building itself, decorating the lawn, were two topiaries, one of an archer and one of a woman holding a harp, as well as a drooping tree with unusually large, broad leaves, as well as a few garden plants here and there. Caitlyn reported no magic in sight, so Lucca and Jimmy dropped down to the grass, whereupon they noticed the archer topiary swivel towards them menacingly. They froze, and the plant did nothing further. With a bit of experimentation, they found that the archer, which had pulled back their bow and loaded some sort of long thorn as ammunition, could only sense them when they stood on the grass. All three began to argue the best course of action. Caitlyn suggested jumping to the tree, but redacted her suggestion when she took a closer look and realized that the "leaves" on the tree were actually sleeping creatures. Eventually, they agreed to Jimmy's plan: Lucca climbed back up onto the wall, the three spread out, and then simultaneously ran across the yard. With a graceful leap from the wall top, Caitlyn nearly made it to the path that led from the back door around either side of the house; meanwhile, Jimmy tripped, fell and barely missed the thorn launched at him from the archer, and Lucca, approaching the harp maiden, triggered her own movement. The topiary began strumming on the harp, and the sound completely entranced the druid. Picking himself up, Jimmy walked over to the archer. Caitlyn watched, dismayed at her partners' lack of ability to stay focused, as Jimmy wrestled the bow away from the topiary, getting shot in the shoulder twice in the process, and Lucca stood transfixed on the lawn. Now holding a bow, Jimmy walked across the lawn easily as the topiary continued its motions, its thorns falling uselessly on the ground with nothing to launch them. Ignoring Lucca for the moment, Caitlyn picked the lock on the back door while Jimmy stood guard. It unlocked without issue, at which point they turned their attentions back to the druid. Using a bladed whip, Caitlyn managed to snap the strings of the bow without stepping on the grass herself. With the harp destroyed, the music stopped and Lucca snapped back. He walked towards the door to join the others, but made the mistake of walking near the topiary, at which point it revealed the sword it had been holding and swiped at the young druid. Dodging past and making it to the door, they left the strange, violent garden behind them, the once-archer still lamely dropping thorns on the ground. The three entered the home, finding themselves in a kitchen. Wasting no time, but not being particularly quiet, they found the stairs to the basement and decended. They found it to be an unfinished storage area, where a variety of armours and armoirs were being kept. In the far corner, they saw propped up on a stand a very attractive suit of full plate, complete with all of the accessories, as though a fully-suited knight stood at attention. Lucca approached it to attach the deathwatch-o-meter that the wizard council had given them; it magnetically clicked on without issue, while Caitlyn confirmed that it had a magical aura and Jimmy began writing a formal field report. Caitlyn, taking the pile of low-level spell scrolls they had been tasked with testing, began casting them from the top. When the first spell connected, the suit of armour flailed out, swinging its arm around at the torso and punching Lucca solidly in the head. He reeled back; the armour, in a broken voice, began to speak, asking them to not engage. There was a few seconds of confusion while they continued, Caitlyn casting spells and the armour awkwardly flailing, as though only some of its joints were functional and barely at that. Jimmy began trying to engage it in conversation, and quickly proved that this construct was, at least in some fashion, aware. The armour identified itself as Mark-1, the first of its product line; it was made by "the Creator of Constructs", and though it seemed to lack the capacity or experience of emotion, it seemed quite able to think and make decisions. Mark-1 explained that there were others like it, that the Creator was his sole master, and that it was at this location under the Creator's orders. According to Mark-1, the Creator's workshop was in Kalleandar, and provided a street address. Mark-1 was amicable to the group finishing their tests, provided that they were non-harming; it was ordered to preserve itself, which is why it fought back originally, as it assumed it was under attack. The group finished their report, and wondered what to do next. At this point, Mr. Armond came heavily down the stairs, suited up in one of his fine products. It was obvious that he had no training in wearing full plate, however, as he was clumsy and looked to be on the verge of having coronary failure. The three tried to placate him, not wanting to get into a fight. Regardless, he branded them thieves and lunged out at them; Lucca and Jimmy held him back in the most non-threatening way they could manage, while Caitlyn cast Charm Person. The spell worked beautifully; he was compelled to think of them as friends, despite his previous hosility. He sat down, and a discussion was had regarding the fate of Mark-1. Mr. Armond asserted that Mark-1 was his rightful property; a magnificent oddity that he would charge admission to an elite crowd to observe. They tried to argue that the construct was in fact sentient, and that he could be seen as participating as a slaver and human trafficker, but he refused to acknowledge the possibility. The three agreed that they couldn't just walk out with the armour; it was clunky, and difficult to hide, and it would be quite strictly illegal. However, they had no desire to leave it: not only did it seem wrong leaving a thinking being, regardless of how emotionless, to act as an amusement display, but they worried about the involvement of the wizard council, who were likely to come and confinscate the armour at their earliest excuse for experimentation. Mark-1, for its part, had no particular opinion on the matter. Eventually, the three decided, rather against Mr. Armond's will, that they would take Mark-1 to the local police as evidence of possible misdeeds and allow them to sort it out. With that settled, they took advantage of Mr. Armond's temporary friendship to avail themselves of his kitchen and bathing facilities. Taking Mark-1 to the Rochester police department, they briefed the on-duty officer on what they had discovered. A bit flabbergasted but not disbelieving, the officer agreed to put the armour under the witness protection program, whatever form that might take. The three were then asked to give their names and addresses for the record, at which point Caitlyn and Lucca crowed smugly at Jimmy's predicament, forcing him to declare a name. With some duress, he stated his name to be Victor Erzebet, to the officer's suspicion. He gave Caitlyn's address, and the other two filled in their names and addresses as well, although Lucca substituted a fake address rather than declare the location of the abandoned warehouse he was currently living in. Thanking them, they were dismissed and proceded to take the next Lightning Transit back to Arlington. Back in the city, they delivered their report, sans the address and information regarding the Creator of Constructs. As they left the office, Caitlyn gave a quick farewell and scuttled off, leaving Victor with Lucca. Without much else of a choice, Lucca gave the man some money for a hotel room, and the two went their own ways. Category:Advent of the All